About the Role:

We are seeking an accomplished and commercially driven Business Head to lead and manage the overall retail and couture business. The role will be responsible for driving revenue, profitability, brand growth, customer experience, retail expansion, couture sales, and operational excellence across all channels.

The ideal candidate will combine strong business acumen with a deep understanding of luxury fashion, premium customers, couture selling, retail operations, merchandising, and brand building.

Key Responsibilities:

Business Strategy and P&L Management:

- Develop and execute the overall business strategy for retail and couture.

- Own the business P&L, revenue growth, margins, costs, cash flows, and profitability.

- Define annual budgets, business plans, sales targets, and growth priorities.

- Identify new business opportunities, customer segments, markets, and revenue streams.

- Establish performance dashboards and review business performance regularly.

- Provide strategic inputs to the founders on business expansion and long-term growth.

Retail Business Management:

- Lead the complete retail business across stores, shop-in-shop formats, exhibitions, trunk shows, and other physical or digital channels.

- Drive store productivity, sales conversion, average transaction value, customer acquisition, and repeat business.

- Develop retail expansion plans, including new store locations and market entry strategies.

- Oversee store operations, visual merchandising, inventory availability, staffing, and customer service.

- Ensure consistent implementation of brand standards across all retail touchpoints.

- Improve store profitability through effective manpower, inventory, and cost management.

Couture Business:

- Lead the couture business, including bespoke, occasion wear, wedding, celebrity, and high-value customer segments.

- Build and maintain relationships with high-net-worth clients, stylists, wedding planners, luxury consultants, and key influencers.

- Develop couture sales strategies, clienteling programs, trunk shows, private previews, and appointment-led selling.

- Ensure seamless coordination between design, sampling, merchandising, production, fittings, alterations, delivery, and after-sales service.

- Monitor order profitability, timelines, customer satisfaction, and execution quality.

- Strengthen the brand's position in the luxury couture market in India and internationally.

Sales and Customer Experience:

- Set and drive monthly, quarterly, and annual sales targets for retail and couture teams.

- Build a high-performance sales culture focused on consultation-led and relationship-driven selling.

- Develop CRM and clienteling initiatives to increase customer retention and lifetime value.

- Ensure an elevated and consistent customer experience across stores, appointments, events, and digital interactions.

- Track customer insights, buying behavior, feedback, and market trends.

- Resolve key customer issues and ensure premium service recovery where required.

Merchandising and Inventory:

- Partner with the design and merchandising teams to plan collections, assortments, pricing, launches, and stock depth.

- Ensure merchandise is aligned with customer demand, brand positioning, seasonality, and commercial objectives.

- Drive effective inventory planning, replenishment, sell-through, ageing control, and stock liquidation.

- Develop pricing strategies for ready-to-wear, occasion wear, accessories, and couture.

- Collaborate with production and supply chain teams to ensure timely delivery and quality standards.

Marketing and Brand Development:

- Work closely with the marketing and creative teams to develop commercially effective brand and product strategies.

- Provide business inputs for campaigns, collection launches, fashion weeks, events, collaborations, and celebrity initiatives.

- Identify opportunities for strategic partnerships, luxury events, media visibility, and international exposure.

- Ensure that all business initiatives remain aligned with the brand's creative vision and premium positioning.

Team Leadership:

- Build, mentor, and lead high-performing teams across retail, couture, sales, customer relations, merchandising, and operations.

- Define organisational structures, roles, targets, incentives, and performance metrics.

- Develop succession plans and strengthen internal talent pipelines.

- Promote accountability, collaboration, ownership, and service excellence across the organisation.

- Ensure effective communication between the creative, commercial, production, finance, and operations teams.

Operations and Governance:

- Ensure operational discipline across retail and couture functions.

- Partner with finance, HR, legal, production, and supply chain teams to maintain strong governance.

- Establish and improve SOPs for sales, inventory, customer orders, payments, alterations, deliveries, returns, and service.

- Monitor risks related to inventory, credit, discounts, delivery timelines, quality, and customer commitments.

- Ensure compliance with company policies and applicable statutory requirements.

Key Performance Indicators:

- Revenue and EBITDA growth

- Retail store productivity and profitability

- Couture sales and order profitability

- Gross margin and contribution margin

- Same-store sales growth

- Conversion rate and average transaction value

- Customer acquisition, retention, and repeat purchase rate

- Inventory turnover and sell-through

- Reduction in aged and non-moving inventory

- On-time delivery and order fulfilment

- Customer satisfaction and service quality

- Team productivity and employee retention

- Successful execution of expansion and brand-building initiatives

Candidate Profile:

The ideal candidate should have:

- 12 - 18 years of experience in luxury fashion, premium retail, couture, lifestyle, jewellery, hospitality, or a related consumer business.

- Proven experience managing a business or large function with end-to-end P&L ownership.

- Strong exposure to retail operations, luxury selling, couture, merchandising, and customer relationship management.

- Demonstrated ability to scale businesses, improve profitability, and build high-performing teams.

- Strong understanding of premium and luxury customer behavior.

- Excellent commercial, analytical, negotiation, and communication skills.

- Ability to work closely with founders, creative leaders, and cross-functional teams.

- High levels of ownership, maturity, discretion, and attention to detail.

- Willingness to travel within India and internationally as required.

Preferred Qualifications:

- Graduate or postgraduate degree in Business Management, Fashion Management, Retail Management, Marketing, or a related discipline.

- Experience working with a premium or luxury fashion brand.

- Established network among HNI/UHNI customers, stylists, wedding planners, luxury retailers, and fashion industry stakeholders.

- Experience managing multi-city retail operations and international customers or markets.